LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



ly|li1liliiillliiii-i»iil"'i>'''i"''"'^''''' 
013 789 519 5 







ADDRESS 

OP THE 

UNION REPUBLICAN 



COSeUESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



2b Xht PecpU of the United States : 

You will soon proceed to select your 
representatives for a new Congress. 
The occasion invites us to submit for 
your inspection the record of Republican 
achievements since that party was called 
to the administration of national affairs. 
We seize the opportunity to avow that 
record, not to apologize for it. We chal- 
lenge your approval, not your pardon. 

The obligations of government and 
people, like the obligations of servant 
and master, are mutual. 

The government, like the servant, 
owes faithful service. But the peoplo, 
like the master, owe honest recognition i 
of faithful service. Every thoughtful 
employer knows that he can not with 
impunity decry faithful labor. He who 
does so habitually will soon have no 
faithful laborers. The faithfui- servant 
will not submit to be treated as a faith- 
less one. If so treated, he himself will 



terruptedly under Democratic control. 
Of that control there is hardly a memory 
left at which the nation should not 
blush. Seemingly, it was inspired by but 
one ambition— til e bad ambition to make 
our foreign policy as ignoble as our home 
policy was shameless. Our intercourse 
with Towers weaker than ourselves was 
spirited enough. We bullied Austria 
out of a Hungarian refugee. We de- 
spoiled Mexico of a portion of her terri- 
tory. We demolished Greytown. We 
jingled millions in the ears of Spain as a 
lure for Cuba and the bribe was spu)-ned. 
In 1854 three of our Ministers abroad 
assembled at Ostend and issued a mani- 
festo in which they declared, ''After 
we shall have offered Spain a price for 
Cuba far beyond its present value, and 
this shall have been refused, then it will 
be time to consider the question : Does 
Cuba in the possession of Spain seriously 
endanger our internal peace and the ex- 



less one. If so treated, ^^.^'^^'^'J''' -^^l ,f ,,,^ ,j,,risked Unionl Should 
become faithless, or he will give place ^^11!. on he answered in the affirma- 



to one who is faithless. 

DEMOCRATIC STATESMANSHIP. 

It is thirteen years since the Republi- 
can party was first called to the admin- 
istration of the National Government. 
For more than thirty years previously 
the Government had been almost uuin 



this question be answered in the affirma- 
tive, then by every law human and 
divine we shall be justified in wresting 
it from Spain if we possess the power." 
It adds piquancy to that extract to 
know that two of the ambassadors who 
in 1854 could think of no way of saving 



^4 . / 



ADT)nE53 OF THE mnON REPUBLICAN CONQRESSIONAL C03DIITTEB. 



1 



our cherislicd Uniou" but to wrest 
!Jul':i from Spaia wero Pierre Soule and 
Ju!i!i Y. MiUJou. Tiie tliird was James 
iiuehiiuan. 

But during all that tiroo, and in spite 
of all that gasconade, tliere Avas not a 
viivftle naturalized citizen who could 
safely revisit liis birth-place, for there 
was not onowliose citizeusliip was not 
■I'solutely denied by the sovereign under 

• !ioso dominion he was born. 

!No American, native or naturalized, 

r-ouid send a letter abroad except upon 

ier,ou3 conditions. "\Vo liad then formed 

: ostal conVeutious with but sevpn 

reign countries. 

Tlie lowest rate of postage stipulated 
in those conventions was ten cents for 
a letter weiglilng not more than one- 
half ounce. Tiie highest rate of postage 
■ 'i the same letter was thirty cents. 

^Ve tamely relinquished to Great 

Uritain a portion of our territory in the 

purliieast; another and a larger portion 

ii the northwest. We described the 

iiiio agreed upon in the northwest so 

loosely that Great Britain immediately 

!.iid claim to large islands on our side of 

;:. That insulting claim was neither 

.sisted nor admitted. It was compro- 

■ised by permitting the claimant to 

lid armed possession of one end of San 

uan, the most valuable of those islands, 

vhile we quielly siiuatted on the other 

.id. And while, by successive conces 

-:on3, wo were constantly adding to the 

.ea of tlie Canadas, wo stupidly relin- 

.aished to their products free access to 

ur markets, as the equivalent of benig 

.'.'.lowed to send siinihir products from 

-he Xorthwest, through Canadian chan- 

-.■ISj.to such precarious markets as they 

• /uld iiud on the other side of the At- 

• aiitic. 

i^uch were the achievements of our 
M;i)!omacy, during those years of Uemo- 
ri4tic supremacy. 

CUEAl* GOYERNMEXT. 

The story of our home rule would be 
. idder .still, if anything sadder could be. 

It has been loudly vaunted that those 
v.-er« ciiuap admlukitratiousl Compared 



with the expenditures of these times 
they were cheap, very cheap. Compared 
with their worth to the country they 
were probably the most profligate the 
world ever saw. They cost the people 
from fifty to seventy-Ovo millions per 
annum. Those millions maintained for 
us the empty pageant we called Govern- 
ment. It was the most worthless pa- 
geant that could be contrived. It was 
not even showy; it was vulgar. It had 
all the features of a government, but 
without its faculties. There were the 
three regular organs — legislative, execu- 
tive, judicial. There was a constant 
succession of Congresses, Presidents, 
and courts. The courts of course were 
useful in hearing and determining pri- 
vate controversies. But what is there to 
show from the labors of the political de- 
partments? It seemed to be the sole 
end, if not the sole aim, of Government 
to collect money enough yearly to paij 
itself. It did not always succeed in 
doing that, as many loan bills enacted 
in times of profound peace still bear 
witness. Indeed, that party was pecu- 
liarly embarrassed in the collection of 
revenue. It dared not levy a tax except 
on the importati&E Q'f a foreign commo- 
dity; and it always dreaded to tax the 
importation of a foreign commodity lest 
it might unwittingly promote some do- 
mestic industry. No woU-educated 
Democrat could tolerate such a result. 
So, deficient revenues were, from time 
to time, aided by loans. Such was the 
case in 1841, ISiJ, and 1S18. 

The first act, passed at the first ses- 
sion of the Tliirty-fifth Congress, au- 
thorized the issueof Treasury notes, and 
almost tl^e last act of the same session 
authorized a loan. In June, 1800, a fur- 
ther loan of twenty-one millions was 
authorized, and on the Sth of Pebruary, 
IbGl, an appeal was made to the market 
for twenty-five millions more. 

Through all those years Congress as- 
sembled annually. The long sessions 
were extended over periods of seven, 
eight, and nine months. But, long or 
short, the sessions produced little In the 



ADDJRESS OF THB tJNiON REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



.V ^^y of legislation beyond the tax and 

^ appropriation bills. The talk endured 
^for months; the work was accomplished 
^ in weeks. 

^' The lirst session of the Thirty-second 
Congress was prolonged until the Slst of 
August. The acts passed embrace one 
hundred and forty-four pages of the 
statutes. All but the Orst thirty-seven 
pages are covered by acts approved on 
the last two days of the session. Earlier 
administrations had planted the Ka- 
tional Capital, had framed the leading 
features of our land system, had dedi- 
cated liberal portions of our public do- 
main to the cause of po' "<lar education, 
and had commenced Oamberland 

road and other works Vornal im- 

provement. "When, after •■ .,.■ ^' thirty 
years of misrule, you drove " Demo- 
cratic party from power, the Cumberland 
road was still unhnished, and tlie party 
bad been educated to believe that the 
National Government had no constitu- 
tional power to complete such work. 

That singular faith did not prevent 
the party from entering upon such works, 
but, seemingly, only from completing 
them. They did not refrain from mak- 
ing appropriations, even for improving 
livers and harbors. Sometimes such 
appropriations were made regularly and 
sometimes irregularly. Apparently they 
were scrupulous only tliat appropriations 
should be made at sucli times, in such 
sums, and for such purposes as would 
promote commerce least and party in- 
terests most. On the approaches to 
Wilmington, N. C, appropriations were 
made at various times, amounting to 
more than ^jOO.OOO. "Wilmington has 
swelled from a population of seven 
thousand in 1850 to thirteen thousand 

■ in 1870. On the lied river in Louisiana 
tliere was expended at different times 
more than five hundred thousand dol- 
lars. That river washes eigiit counties 
in the State of Louisiana. Those eight 
counties had a population in 1840 of fifty- 
four thousand ; in 1870 of one hundred 
and six thousand. On the liarbor of 
Chicago, whicli is tlie gateway to the 



Northwest, the home of millions, thoy 
doled out appropriations amounting to 
$217,000. On the harbor at IMilwaukee 
they appropriated in 1844 $20,000. Eight 
years later they resumed the work, ap- 
parently with the determination of com- 
pleting it. Fifteen thousand dollars 
were appropriated that year. The year 
following they appropriated the munifi- 
cent sum of $163 94, and then rested 
from that labor. Congress voted other 
appropriations for similar works, whicli 
encountered the Executive veto; and 
DemocraticEepresentatives, finding they 
must disobey either President or people, 
decided to disobey the latter and obey 
the former. 

THE LOinsyiLLE CANAL. 

A great natural highway, the Ohio 
river, along which is poured a commerce 
of incalculable value, was obstructed by 
a rapid near Louisville. The interests 
of that commerce required a canal to be 
built around those rapids. Congress did 
not assume that duty, nor even let it 
alone. The State of Kentucky char- 
tered a company to construct that canal 
and to toll the commerce of the Ohio. 
The United States aspired to the dignity 
of a stockholder in that company, and 
achieved it. The Government took and 
paid for 2,902 shares, at one hundred 
dollars each. Private parties took 7,098 
shares. Tiie canal was built, tiie tolls 
were fixed, commerce bled, and the com- 
pany's treasury filled. The revenues 
were so large it seemed a pity the Gov- 
ernment sliould share them. But as a 
stockholder, the Government was enti- 
tled to nearly one-third of the net rev- 
enues. The Government was not repre- 
sented in the management of the com- 
pany. That was governed by five di- 
rectors, each of whom was a stockholder. 
Those directors concliuled tiiey could 
make a better use of the revenues tnaw 
to divide them with the Government. 
Tothat end theyresolved the canal ought 
to be made free. In order that it might 
become free it was resolved that the net 
revenues should he applied to tlie pur- 
chase of thejprivate stock, llavixig found 



AD&RBSS 99 THE UKION REPUBLICAN CONGRSSSIOKAL OOMltlTtn. 



a market for the stock, there was noth- 
ing left but to fix the price of it. That 
was modestly set by the directors at only 
lifty per cent, premium. 

Kentucky sanctioned thearrangeraent; 
the United States was not consulted. 
But it was evident that if the earnings 
which belonged to the United States 
were appropriated to purchase private 
stock, the United States would soon 
own a majority of the stock. To avoid 
such a catastrophe, Kentucky required 
the directors to pay for the stock with 
Government funds, but to have the 
stock transferred to the directors, who 
should hold it in trust for the United 
States, but vote on it as the legislation 
of Kentucky required. 

In pursuance of these directions, the 
directors proceeded to apply the surplus 
earnings to the purchase of the private 
stock. Between 1842 and 1855 they paid 
for such stock, of the par value of $709,- 
800, the sum of $1,709,262. Then the 
directors admitted they had received 
enough, and notified the Secretary of 
the Treasury they were ready to trans- 
fer the canal to the custody of the " Gen- 
eral Government so soon as the Depart- 
ment may be prepared to receive it." 
But it happened that at that time the 
Secretary was also a Kentuckian. He 
evidently felt that he could take some 
liberties with his friends. He accord- 
ingly replied that Congress had not au- 
thorized tlie acceptance, " but requested 
Lhe president and directors each to retain 
one sliare, (for eligibility,) and to nian- 
Hge it under the charter until authority 
might by law be conferred on the De- 
partment to receive it." The president 
and directors very promptly acceded to 
Lhat reque,^t. It should be noticed that 
the conduct of the Secretary exhibits an 
instance of deference to legislative au- 
Lliority on the part of a liigh executive 
uilicer which is believed to be quite 
unique. TTe co\ild not feel free to take 
charge of the canal himself, because 
Congress bad not told him to do so ; ac- 
cordinyly he gave it to his friends. Such 
exhibitions of scrupuleus regard for the 



limits of jurisdiction are seldom wit- 
nessed. It is gratifying to know that 
this one was duly rewarded. When the 
distinguished Secretary retired from the 
Treasury he was made pres'ident of the 
canal company. 

Of the subsequent management, it is 
only necessary to state that the directors 
at once reduced the rate of tolls fifty per 
cent. But as the canal was only two 
miles long, and there were only five di- 
rectors, they could manage to spend 
for their own salaries and that of their 
assistants but $44,012 per annum, to 
which they added $22,000 for contingen- 
cies ; consequently the revenues accumu- 
lated in the treasury of the company. 
To make that money useful, the directors 
organized themselves into a savings 
bank, and then the canal company de- 
posited their surplus with the banking 
company. If the latter received as much 
for the use of the revenues as the former 
did for collecting, they ought to have 
been content. But avarice rarely is con- 
tent. This anomalous corporation, with 
one body, one head, but two faces, was 
not content. When it was ascertained 
how profitable they could make money 
derived from the work they did not own, 
they desired to get more money. 

They hit upon the expedient of hy- 
pothecating the canal and raising money 
under pretense of enlarging it. In 1860 
Congress authorized the directors," with 
the revenues and credits of the company, 
to enlarge the said canal." Under that 
act the company mortgaged the work for 
some two millions of dollars ; and it is 
not yet known whether the Government 
will be able to recover it or not. 

OTHEK SPECIMEXS OF DEMOCRATIC 
RULE. 

That party did not overturn our land 
system, notwitlistanding it was a very 
good one. During tlie year 1841 the 
system was much improved ; that must 
be confessed. But the Democratic party 
was not in power that year. We ought 
also gratefully to remember that the 
grants of land made for educational 
purposes were not repealed. The fact 



ADDRESS OF THE UNION REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



furnishes a striking illustration of spar- 
ing mercy. But the phenomenon is not 
diflBcult to explain. Such grants 
were made only to States in which 
the lands were. Such lauds were 
found for the most part only in new 
States. The new States were very unani- 
mously Democratic in politics. The 
States receiving the grants could alone 
administer them, and the party seems to 
have felt confident that grants so ad- 
ministered would not promote the cause 
of education more than grants of money 
had promoted the cause of commerce. 
All who are familiar with the early ex- 
periences of the school funds in the 
Southern and some of the Western 
States, will need no other assurance that 
that confidence was not misplaced. 

The Capitol was not transplanted. 
But when the Democratic party retired 
from control, in 1861, scarcely a building 
belonging to the Government was fin- 
ished. Perhaps, however, the party 
would have avoided that cause of re- 
proach if they had earlier formed thfi 
design of transferring those buildings 
to the use of another government. 

Armies were then maintained. Their 
ranks were thin, but they were sumptu- 
ously officered— officered far too largely 
by those who had been educated in every 
soldierly grace save that of allegiance. 

A navy was suffered to exist. But as 
it was found a little too loyal to desert 
its flag, and a little too gallant to sur- 
render it, when the hour of national 
peril arrived, that navy was scattered 
in remote seas. 

DO-NOTHING POLICY. 

The Presidents of those half -forgotten 
years were as diligent, by annual and 
special messages, to explain why the 
Federal Governmentcould do nothing, as 
the Congresses were to do nothing. Like 
the two brothers engaged in the temper- 
ance cause, one of whom lectured on the 
evils of intemperance, while the other 
furnished a shocking example; so Dem- 
ocratic Presidents were perennially elo- 
quent in expounding the impotency of 
tbe National Government, while Demo- 



cratic Congresses were as persistent in 
illustrating it. 

The pretext for this strange sluggish- 
ness was an amiable one. Constitutional 
inhibitions were pleaded in excuse for 
all omissions. They constantly neglect- 
ed great national interests, because they 
feared to infringe upon the prerogative 
of States ; they proclaimed themselves 
the champions of States' rights ; they 
arrogated to themselves the name of the 
States' rights party. 

It was a specious pretense, but it was 
utterly insincere. So long as our ar- 
chives remain, so long that very part> 
will be known as the one which struck 
the foulest blow at the rights of States 
which could be contrived. 

That is the party which, on the 18th 
of September, 1850, wrote the fugitive 
slave act in the statute book. By that 
act the United States commanded the 
Federal courts to multiply court com- 
missioners without limit. By that act 
the United States offered such commis- 
sioners a clean bounty of five dollars 
each, for certificates that residents of 
Massachusetts, or of any other State, 
were fugitives from Texas or some other 
State; and when such a certificate was 
obtained, pledged all its forces to remove 
such resident to the State wherein he 
was claimed; which made that certificate, 
so purchased, of such hucksters, conclu- 
sive evidence of the right to remove, 
and commanded every tribunal within 
the insulted State to be still, and all its 
citizens to aid the outrage — a statute the 
very first victim of which was a free man 
from Pennsylvania, who, being declared 
a fugitive by a five-dollar commissioner, 
was transported to Virginia by the 
United States, and finding no man there 
base enough to claim him, he was al- 
lowed to get back at his own expense. 

In all those years the national charac- 
ter had not been raised an inch. On 
the contrary, through them all, it had 
fallen constantly lower and lower. 

When England and France proposed, 
in 1852, to join with the United States 
in mutual renunciation of all designs on 



6 ADDKESS OF TEE UNION RErUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



Cuba, an American Secretary of State 
did not hesitate to assign as a reason h")r 
refusing: to join such a convention, "tliat 
it wouUl give a new and powerful im- 
petus" to attacks "on tlie island of Cuba, 
by lawless bands of adventurers from 
the United States, with tlie avowed de- 
sign of taking possession of the island" — 
attacks which, he argued, no adminis- 
tration would be strong enough to resist. 

NO POWER TO SAYE THE GOVERNMENT. 

A government which denied its right 
to aid commerce over the Des Moines 
Bapids, and which advertised its impo- 
tency to control itsown fillibusters, could 
hardly be expected to make a becoming, 
figure when confronted with war. "When, 
therefore, in 1861, the standard of rebel- 
lion was raised, and State after State 
wheeled defiantly into the ranks of re- 
volt, it was perhaps not so very surpris- 
ing that one-half the Democratic party 
joined the revolt, while the other half 
exclaimed itcould not be resisted — not so 
very surprising that the six per cent, 
bonds issued in February, 1S61, were 
sold at a discount of six per cent., and 
not so very surprising that Great Britain 
should have proclaimed the rebels to be 
lawful belligerents, before she knew a 
gun had been fired. 

But it was surprising that a President 
of the United States should address a 
special message to Congress to persuade 
the imblic tliat, although the rebellion 
was illegal, yet the Government had no 
right to suppress it; lor by tliat act he 
introduced to t!io world a Government, 
the like of which had never before been 
seen— a Government agauist which it 
was unlawful to revolt, and by which it 
was unlawful to suppress revolt. Such 
a government is described nowhere in 
political history, save in the message 
of Presiclent BuchanaH. 

Such was t!ie style of administration, 
to which tlie Republican party succeeded 
on the 4tli of March, 1801. That party 
was instructed to but one duty. As you 
had never known the National Govern- 
ment to do anything, you evidently did 
iiot expect it to do much. You simply 



commanded it to save your Territories 
from the defilement of slavery ; that was 
all. 

THE OKDEK OBEYED. 

That command has been fulfilled. 
There is no slavery in any of your Terri- 
tories. That will scarcely be denied 
eveii by the opposition journals. There 
is just as little slavery in any of the 
States. Something more than you then 
thought possible has been accomplished. 

OTHER THINGS ACCOMPLISHED. 

But there is no need to dwell upon the 
national achievements of the last thir- 
teen years — they wei^e too conspicuous 
not to have been seen; they are too re- 
cent to be forgotten. It will suffice to 
present a schedule of the leacling events. 

At home and abroad tlie Union was 
proclaimed to be dissolved in 1S61. The 
Union is restored now. 

Nine States then claimed to have left 
the protection of the Constitution for- 
ever. They have all returned to that 
protection now. "Those that thou gavest 
me I have kept, and none is lost," said 
the Saviour of men. The Republican 
party has preserved more than the States 
you committed to its keeping. It has 
found those which were lost. 

In ISCl the "Confederate States of 
America," so called, were clamoring for 
admission into the family of nations. 
There is no longer any such pretense. 
Each one of those great but misguided 
communities now has honorable recog- 
nition as an integral part of the United 
States. 

A race numbering millions has been 
raised from the condition of chattels to 
the state of man. Human rights have 
gained the sanction of three new chap- 
ters added to the national Constitution. 
Murder organized in several States, bear- 
ing the name of Kuklux, wearing the 
garb and plying the trade of Oends, has 
been exposed, convicted, punished. 

Abroad our career has been scarcely 
less triumphant. Great Britain has cor- 
rected the mistake she made when she 
assumed that the appearance of the Con- 
federate States was the sure premoni- 



ADDRESS OF THE UNION REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL OOilMITTEE. 



tion of tlie departure of the United 
States. Hhe has done what Great Britain 
never did before— slie has apologized for 
a mistake. Out of that mistake has 
sprung a new era in diplomacy. 

WitJiout tlieo.nploymeat of force, but 
peaceably, the Itt.;)nblic which was de- 
fied by her owti citizens, and despised 
everywhere in ISGl, has led Great Britain 
voluntarily to submit her conduct to the 
judgment of nations, and in pursuance 
of their judgment, she has paid a fine of 
fifteen millions for the wrong she did us. 

That is not all. Those islands tg which 
she made claim on our Northwest coast 
are relinquished. That claim Great Brit- 
ain submitted to the judgment of the 
Emperor of Xorth Germany, and submit- 
ted herself to the mortification of being 
told to surrender it. She was notawari- 
ed an equivalent for it. Sho was simply 
told she had claimed great possessions 
to which sho had no right. 

That is not all. If there ever was one 
principleof English jurisprudence which 
England believed to be irreversible and 
unalterable, it was the principle that a 
British-born subject could never change 
his allegiance. "Once a Briton, always a 
Briton" was a law she held to be as fixed 
as gravitation. She fouglit one war with 
us in defense of it. But after seeing 
our pitiful army of eleven thousand men 
suddenly swollen by volunteers to nearly 
a million, she wisely concluded it was 
not worth while to fight another war in 
defense of that principle, and by peace- 
ful negotiation she has repealed the law 
she so long and so obstinately held to be 
irrepealablo. Germany has followed 
that wise example, or rather set the ex- 
ample. Belgium, Sweden, Korway, and 
Denmark have done the same, and now 
when the Kepublic grants the boon of 
citizenship to one of Irish, English, Ger- 
man, or Scandinavian birth, the grant is 
recognized in the land of his nativity. 

I'OSTAGS KEFOKM. 

That is not all. If he can not revisit 
his home, but cares to write, a letter can 
bo carried with marvelous celerity and 
at tarifling cost The following table ex- 



hibits the groat reductions made in iho 
rates of foreign p'ostage by postal con- 
ventions framed since 1S61 : 









vj^ . 




rostagre 


ch.irge- 


'& 




RMe lo 


r loiters 




not exceeding 






^ onuce. 


Cotjutiica. 






Ci3 




Oct. 1, 


Julvl, 


|?l 




18(il. 


1874, 


(i 3-J 


A7-j;ontinc Rcpiib- 


Cenis. 


Centx. 


Cents. 


lie 


33 


18 
12 


1. 


Australia 


11 


AuMli-ia, German 
niaU clii-cct 








15 


6 


9 


Austria, (Jonn.an 








iiiaUviaEiigUinii, 


SO 


7 


2 


IJclsi'iii 


' 42 


8 


m 


IV'ilivia viaraJiania 


34 


22 


n 


Rnizil 


i!> 


13 


ry 


Canatla 


10 on.") 

84 


6 

22 


4 or 9 


Cliifl, vi.i Panama. 


n 


China 


4.^ 


10 


sr 


DoDDiark 


'24 


7 


17 


liast liuiics 


S3 


10 


5U 


Kcnaflor, vi;i Pan- 








ama 


U 


£0 


11 


EfOPt, Tia South- 








anii>t 0!i 


33 


20 


I'- 


Ksypt, (e-iicepi 




Alexandria, ^<!(M-- 








nuin luaii liirect.. 


80 


16 


ll 


Egypt, (oxc'pt 








AUisanilriaJOcr- 








man mail via En- 








frjixnd , 


S3 


17 


21 


EiTV pt, A Icxand ria, 




Gorman mail dl- 








leot 


80 


11 


19 


Egypt, Alexan- 




dria, <i ^ r Til a n 








mail via Eniiland. 


S8 


13 


a-] 


Gorinan States, 








German mail di- 








rect 


15 


6 


9 


German States, 








GeriTian mail >ia 








T^nglani! 


SO 


7 


S3 


Grocco (Jcrnian 








mail dirt>o,t 


85 


14 


a 


G ro ece, Gnrman 








mail via England. 


43 


li 


27 


JTolland 


4J 


10 
10 
10 


IT 


Itnlv 


82 


Japan 


is 


Java, via South- 








ampton 


45 


ms 


17 


New Zealand 


Si 


I'i 


1' 


Nor ^^a^' • 


4ii 
83 


10 
IS . 


Jto 


I'arajiu;iy 


13 


Peru, viaPanama. 


84 


3-2 


Vi 


Portugal, via Kng.. 


»7 


10 


'ii 


UusPia, Gorman 








mail direct 


28 


11 


li 


Russia. German 








mall via Kii^land. 


17 


15 


25 


Sandwich l.^lands. 


10 


< 


4 


Sjiain 


42 
8:1 
4i 


12 
9 
8 


SQ 


S wede)'^ ...t 


'H 


Switzerland 


3J 


Turkey, Gennau 








mairillreel 


813 


n 


•zi 


Turkey, Gesman 








mail via Euj;!aiid. 


Sfi 


la 


tr 


Uuilerl Jilugclfiin, 








(K nfi! and. 'Iro- 








land, Scotland , 








a:ul WJlIcs) 


u 


« 


13 


liiuifuay 


'i» 


u 


1. 



ADDRESS OF THE UNION REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



OUR POWER VnsrDICATED. 

"When in October last, a Spanish vice 
consul in Cuba so far forgot the respect 
duo to the United States as to seize 
upon a vessel sailing under the protoc- 
tiou of her flag, Spain promptly, without 
the firiug of a gun or spilling a drop of 
blood, made that honorable reparation 
which every just government is glad to 
make for a wrong done. 

MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT. 

And this is not all. Our material 
development has kept pace with our 
political reforms, and despite the dis- 
couragement to immigration, and the 
positive drain of a great war lasting 
four years, our population increased be- 
tween 1860 and 1870 more thaa seven 
millions. The increase was but a little 
more than eight millions during the 
previous decade. In spite of the enor- 
mous cost of that same war, both in 
money and in muscle, our lines of com- 
pleted railways have increased from 
81,000 railfs, at the close of 1861, to al- 
most 72,000, at the close of 1873. One 
rron track spans the continent ; others 
are projected and more or less advanced 
in construction. That vast region be- 
tween the Rocky Mountain range and 
the Sier-ra Nevadas, which was almost 
unknown in 1861, is now traversed by 
highways in every direction, and its 
geograpny is as familiar to our children 
as the geography of New England was to 
the children ot 1861. And here, within 
this very llepubhc which thirteen years 
ago the faithless Democracy turned over 
to the liepublican party for burial, capi- 
tal has combined to construct more miles 
of railway than ail the rest of the world 
possesses. Harbors and rivers have 
been improved, and fine trade of our 
Western lakes and rivers now employs a 
commercial marine exceeding 1,200,000 
tons. 

Enlarged facilities for trade have 
swelled tlie volume of trade. 

PUBLIC CREDIT ADVANCED. 

Two facts are suflicient'jy eloquent of 
our natiojial growtli. First. The six per 
cent. b<md8 issued in February, 1861, 



sold for ninoty-/our cents on the dollar. 
The nation then ovrod but sixty million 
dollars. The same bonds sold in June, 
1874, as high as 122j cents on the dollar, 
in currency, or a fraction over 110 in 
gold, although the nation then owed two 
thousand million dollars. Second. The 
value of annual exports of domestic 
commodities increased from three hun- 
dred and seventy-three million in 1860 to 
six hundred and forty-nine million in 
1873, being an increase during the period 
of two hundred and seventy-six million 
dollars. 

There are those bold enough to assort 
that the country is now governed worse 
instead of better than formerly. Some 
may be found weak enough to believe 
such assertions. But it requires a great 
deal of declamation to prove that the 
day is cold when the mercury stands at 
98 in the shade. The mercury won't lie. 
Men unhappily sometimes do. And it 
will require a great deal of rhetoric to 
persuade this country that it is being 
ruined by a Government which in thir- 
teen years has advanced its credit 
throughout the money markets of the 
w^orld fully thirty-three per cent, and 
has nearly trebled its surplus produc- 
tions. 

LAND POLICY. 

But this is not all. Since the advent 
of the Kepublicau party the finishing 
touches have been given to our land sys- 
tem. It was long ago adjudged that a 
dollar and a quarter was a full equiva- 
lent for an acre of the public domain. 
Accordingly that was fixed as the mini- 
mum price. That gave to the Govern- 
ment $200 for a quarter section of land. 
But Republicanism adjudged that a far- 
mer was more worth to the country than 
$200, and so it has tendered a homestead 
not exceeding one hundred and sixty 
acres to every head of a family who will 
make a farm upon it. And in view of 
a fact which no State can afford to 
overlook, to wit : that a successful agri- 
culture is the primal necessity and grand 
inspiration of every other industry, and 
that, to be truly successful, agriculture. 



ADDRESS OF '/HE UNION REPUBLICAN CONaRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



like every otber craft, should be learned, 
prosperous colleges have beeu endowed 
out of the public domain, wherein field 
culture may be reared from the rank of 
a craft to the dignity of a science; to 
the grandeur even of an art. 

But, as establishing the future land 
policy of the Republican party, the fol- 
lowing resolution of the House of Rep- 
resentatives is submitted : 

Eesolved, That in the judgment of this 
House the policy of granting subsidies 
in public land to'railroad and other cor- 
porations ought to be discontinued; and 
that every consideration of public policy 
and equal justice to the whole people re- 
quires that the public lands of the United 
States should be held for the exclusive 
purpose of securing homesteads to actual 
settlers, under the homestead and pre- 
emption laws, subject to reasonable ap- 
propriations of such lands for educa- 
tional purposes. 

THE UNION PRESERVED. 

Fellow-citizens, when you committed 
the Union to the keeping of the Repub- 
lican party, it seemed on the verge of 
dissolution. Many hoped and some 
feared it had received an incurable 
wound. "We present the Union to you 
to-day every whit whole. The Republic 
is at peace througheut all her borders ; 
she is at peace with all the world. Her 
rightful authority is disputed nowhere ; 
her opinions are respected everywhere. 
She stands in the very vanguard of sov- 
ereign States. We challenge history to 
produce another instance of a country 
raised from such humiliation to such 
grandeur in so short a time. And this 
transformation has been wrought not 
merely without the aid of the Demo- 
cratic party, but in spite of its utmost 
hostility. 

THE OPPOSITION REVIEWED. 

You have seen the shortcomings of 
that party in administration. Its faults 
in opposition have been still more glar- 
ing. Perhaps they can be forgiven for 
allowing the ship of State to drift so 
near the rocks. But how can they be 
forgiven their struggles to prevent her 
from being snatched from that peril ? 
That charity, which delightsto think no 



evil, may excuse their omission to lift 
the country; upon the plea of incompe- 
tency. But not charity itself can see 
anything but malignancy in their per- 
sistent efforts to prevent the country 
from being lifted. The world does not 
resent, but rather pities, the helpless 
crew under whose seamanship Jesus 
sailed for the country of the Gadarenes. 
It is plain they could not still the winds 
which threatened to sink the ship. But 
if they had attempted to throw the Sa- 
viour overboard when he appeared to 
rebuke those impious winds, the world 
would have known no pity for the crew. 
And that i:^ the great Democratic offense 
which still smells to heaven; not that 
they did nothing for the country, but 
that they fiercely opposed everything 
that was done for the country. It would 
not be quite true to say that the Demo- 
cratic party opposed the national effort 
to suppress the rebellion ; that would 
have been high treason. It would bo 
quite as far from the truth to say that 
they promoted that effort. The rebellion 
could not have lasted two years had the 
Democratic party continued in tliat pa- 
triotic purpose which Douglas for a 
season inspired. But Douglas died, and 
so did that purpose. 

With a sagacity, a steadfastness, and a 
clearness of vision which, if employed in 
a good cause, would be of inestimable 
value, the Democratic party found that 
covert, narrow, and devious way which 
lay between loyalty and treason, and 
they pursued that way from the middle 
of the year 1862 to the end of the war, 
always avoiding the rebuke of their 
country's laws and also tlie reproach of 
their country's foes. 

But even for this stinted measure of 
loyalty there may have been some excuse. 
It may have sprung from lack of faith 
and not from want of love. They pro- 
fessed to believe the rebellion invincibler, 
and, if they really believed so, they could 
hardly be expected to display much zeal 
in a struggle they believed to be hopeless. 
The spirits are rare and very choice who 
lead a forlorn hope with anything like 



10 ADDRESS OP THE UNION EEPUBLIGAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



gayety. But those who lead a real hope, 
no mutter how forlorn, and do not 
merely follow a dread, are not apt to 
look so dismal as these Democrats 
did when the rebellion was finally 
crushed. 

Possibly, however, even tliat singular 
dejection was but the effect of mortiDca- 
tion at their own misjudgment and want 
of prevision. But when the rebellion 
was crushed and they were invited to aid 
in removing its cause, as well as a 
cause for future rebellions, by abolishing 
slavery, they refused to do that 1 How 
can that refusal be excused or for- 
given ? The great act of emancipation, 
while it is the grandest in liistory, is also 
the least expensive. It cost nothingbut 
a vote, yet even this they refused to give. 
By simply writing " yes " upon their bal- 
lots, instead of "no," they knew they 
could give freedom to four millions of 
human beings. Tiiey were sure of vic- 
tory if they said " yes ;" they could only 
hope for victory if they said " no "—and 
yet they said " no." It was a mere ques- 
tion of volition. The question was 
squarely put to them after they had been 
led shuddering clear througli the Red sea 
and stood dry on theoiher shore— stood, 
too, in that marvelous blaze which 
irradiates the nineteenth century as it 
sinks into the twentieth— they were 
plainly asked " Are you willing the bond 
should be free V" and they said " no." 
When is that generation coming, and 
whence is it coming, that shall excuse or 
forgive that impious refusal V 

And when, in spite of Democratic re- 
sistance the bond had been made free 
and secured against a return to slavery 
by an amendment to the Federal Consti- 
tution, this same opposition was asked 
once more, " May the freedmen become 
citizens and be admitted to civilrights V" 
And again the answer was " no." 

And when, in spite of that resistance, 
the freedmen had been made citizens the 
Democracy was asked, "May these citi- 
zens, though they be black, have the pro- 
tection of the ballot which the law be- 
nignly grants to all citizens, however 



humble, of every other color ?" And 
again the answer was " no." 

And when the Kuklux, armed with 
brand and bludgeon, hunted the new- 
made citizen by night, hunted him 
through swamps and pursued him to 
death — when the local authorities stood 
powerless in the presence of organized 
murder and arson, and this opposition 
was appealed to to lend the protection of 
the national tribunals to the victims of 
such incarnate hate, they still mockedat 
such calamities and refused all relief. 

It is often flippantly said that all these 
crimes and horrors are past, and it is 
absurd to attempt to maintain a politi- 
cal party on the memory of them. Per- 
haps so. But would it not be insane to 
trust a political party that could so 
readily forget them? It is not magnani- 
mous, it is indeed hardly manly, to per- 
secute men for sins of which they have 
really repented. But that is not repen- 
tance, itishyprocrisy, which professes to 
repent of sins and does not forsake thera, 
but embraces worse ones. Such is tiie 
anomalous repentance displayed by the 
Democratic party. It never ceases to 
denounce the Republican party for what 
it has done or is trying to do, but it 
straightway thunders with fiercer de- 
nunciations of what the party has not 
done and is determined shall not be done. 
The moment Democrats forgot to decry 
Republican policies they begin to belie 
Republican motives. For twenty years 
they deemed it sufilciently opprobrious 
to call Republicans "Radicals;" now 
they claim to bo radicals themselves and 
denounce Republicans as rascals. 

DJEMOCUATIC PROMISES. 

Since the early part of 1S72 tliey have 
been diligently seeking to suborn i-enc- 
gadeRepublicansto turn states' evidence 
and to swear that all political virtue is 
inthose discomfited forces which resisted 
the progress of the last decade, and all 
villainy isin the forces which marshaled 
that progress. To such witnesses they 
have lavishly offered honors, offices, 
dignities, presidencies, everything wliich 
could be miide the subject of a promise. 



ADDRESS OF THE TJOTON REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 11 



To answer to any name*, to profess 
every creed ; to follow any flas? ; to sleep 
in any bed ; to fraternize wiLii all fac- 
tions; and to offer a salve for every sore — 
such is the mission of the opposition 
to-day. Never before in politics was a 
lie enacted so transparent and so auda- 
cious as that paraded by the Democratic 
party in 1872, when they gravely intro- 
duced Horace Greeley to the people as 
their representative man. It is not pos- 
sible such "signs and wonders" can 
"deceive the elect." So far they Lave 
failed to deceive even the electors. 

If that party feels ifc to be unkind to 
remind it of its past career, how must it 
feel to be reminded of its present atti- 
tude ? Once its members professed 
distinct principles ; all that could be ob- 
jected to them was that they professed 
the worst principles extant. But bad as 
they were, they were more becoming 
than this utter abjuration of all princi- 
ples. You may not like to employ, but 
you do not wholly despise, the zealot 
wlio consistently asserts that sarsapa- 
rilla will cure every disease and so urges 
it upon every patient; but who can re- 
spect the charlatan who persistently 
cries to the sick, "give me your money 
and you may take what remedies you 
please?" 

"When in 1860 Democrats said, "Con- 
tinue us in power and we will Heck the 
Territories with slavery ;" when in 1864 
they said, "restore us to power and we 
will barter with rebels, giving freedom 
for peace;" when in 1868 they said 
again, " restore us to power and we will 
abrogate three great amendments to the 
Constitution, secure government to 
white men, and return slavery to col- 
ored men," it could only be replied tiuit 
such invitations were very unattractive. 
But when in 1S72 they cried, "restore 
us to oflice once more and we Avill do 
everything that anybody wants done," 
the invitation was utterly repulsive. 
And \vhe)i they supplemeiit this 
brazen indifffrenco to principle by 
a stolid iuiiifference to truth; when, 
weary of opposing tlie measures of the 
majority, they combine to assail their 
characters ; when tliey abandon false 
reasoning only to resort to false asser- 
tion, they exhibit an opposition hard if 
not impossible to parallel. 

And yet that opposition, while it never 
was so bad, was never so dangerous as 
now. People cm better judge the mei'- 
its of a measure than tlie merits of a 
man. They can more readily detect a 
fallacious arguruent than a i'alse state- 
ment. Wlien the oppositiou denounced 



Republicans as misguided statesmen, 
the people could safely compare our 
measures with theirs, aiid judge which 
were best. But when they denounce 
Republicans as thieves it is not so easy 
to try the truth of the assertion. Besides 
two circumstances give slight color to 
thatallegation. Pirst. Republicans have 
possession of the Government, and have 
the best chance to peculate. Second. 
It has been the especial labor of the 
present Administration to detect and 
punish peculation. Some cages have been 
found. * 

He was a great stateman, as well as a 
great poet, who made Cassius say : 

''In such a time as this it is not meet 
That tvery nice oflcuse should bea.r his com 
luent. " 

However specious that theory may 
sound, many great rulers have been com- 
pelled in turbulent times to practice 
upon it. William III was an lionest 
magistrate. He had a Avorld to fight, 
and he was compelled to be very lenient 
toward the treasons of Godolphiu and 
Marlborough. He was slow to punish 
the embezziements of Torrington, and 
iie never did punish the manifold rascal- 
ities of Orford. During the struggle 
and excitement which attended the re- 
bellion some bad men found their way 
into public employments. Mr. Lincoln's 
adrauiistration was too much occupied 
with graver matters to keep strict watch 
of every individual offender. The ad- 
ministration which succeeded was quite 
as unprepared for that duty. Congress 
was then much absorbed in the great 
work of reconstruction, and the Presi- 
dent was not happily fitted to criticise 
ollicial misconduct. But the present 
Administration has no exemption from 
that work. If it is not attended to now, 
the Administration, and not the times, 
must be held responsible. But it is at- 
tended to. It is prosecuted with that 
inllexible energv wliich lias character- 
ized every labor led by President Grant. 
Some offenses have been exposed. And 
every time a rogue has been punished 
the opposition has shouted: "See how 
corrupt Republicans are!" It Is as if, 
whenever a surgeon removes a tumor 
from his patient the mob should shout: 
"How very rotten the doctor must be!" 
So, this unfiinching reform is prosecuted 
at the risk of this twofold peril: First. 
Every time we remove a rascal we lend 
plausibility to Democratic calumny. 
Second. Every time we i)unish one we 
make a Democrat. For a few vears that 
party has been recruited, not onlv by 
those knaves we have dismissed irom 



12 ADDRESS OF THE UNION REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE. 



office, but by a still larger number who 
have beeu unable to gtt oilice. It is not 
impossible that by cbis process they may 
in time recover a majority. Good men 
can not, without uneasiness, contem- 
plate the possibility of the country once 
more falling into the control of that 
party, when, in addition to the devils 
wiiich always paralyzed it for any noble 
elfort, it shall have been re- enforced by 
lUl the unclean spirits expelled from the 
Republican party. 

INTERNAL REFORM. 

' The success which has attended the 
effort of this Administration to effect 
internal reformas forcibly indicated, but 
only partially measured, by these facts: 

First. In thirteen years it has not once 
been forced to resort to loans except by 
the exigencies of war. Our rivals in 
popular favor, as has been seen, repeat- 
edly resorted to loans in time of peace. 

Second. In six years taxes have beeu 
remitted at various times amounting to 
more than three hundred millions an- 
nually. 

Third. The principal of the public 
debt has been reduced in the same time 
by the sum of three hundred and fifty- 
five million dollars. 

Fourth. The Treasury note has been 
appreciated from 76 2-10 per cent., its 
gold value in March, 1869, to 89 2-10 per 
cent., its gold value in March last. 

Fifth. In spite of the financial disas- 
ters which overtook the country in Sep- 
tember, 1873, the public debt was dimin- 
ished nearly five millions during the 
fiscal year just ended. 

Sixth. The cost of the Government, 
excluding expenditures for improve- 
,ments and disbursements made neces- 
sary to meet obligations imposed on us 
by the rebellion, was less per capita dur- 
ing the last fiscal year than during the 
year ending June 30, 1860. 

Bad men, doubtless, are still left in 
the Republican party, as bad men are 
in the Democratic party. So good men 
are in both parties. The difference is 
this : In spite of the bad men in the 
former, it has in thirteen years raised 
the country higher in true national 
greatness than any country was ever 
raised before in the same length of time; 
while, because of bad men in the other 
party, the country constantly declined in 
character and dignity while it had con- 
trol. A partf better than eithei", loftier 
in its aspirations, wiser in its methods, 
bolder in its endeavors, is unquestion- 
ably desirable. Such a party might be 
attained, if the wise, the viprigiit, and the 
patriotic in the Democratic ranks would 



unite themselves with the like in the 
Republican organization. But it is im- 
possible to frame sucii a party by re-en- 
forcing the effete Democracy, which has 
not achieved a single noble end, nor set 
before the country a single noble aim in 
forty years, with all the reckless adven- 
turers and hungry place-hunters who in 
former years flocked to the Republican 
party, not to aid its enterprises, but to 
batten on its strength. 

ELECT REPUBLICANS. 

You are about to select Representa- 
tives to a new Congress. We earnestly 
entreat you to send the truest and ablest 
Republican you have. But we entreat 
you to send Republicans and not Demo- 
crats. You will send one or the other. 
Xo matter what the individual may call 
himself, or what disguise he may wear, 
he will be a Republican or a Democrat. 
There is at present no room for any 
other style in our politics. If you do 
not mean to retrace the past you will 
select Republicans and not Democrats. 
If you mean to go forward in the future, 
you will select Republicans and not 
Democrats. 

OUR MISSION NOT ENDED. 

It is sometimes said the mission of 
the Republican party is accomplished. 
If by that no more is meant than that 
the party has discharged every trust 
heretofore committed to it, we admit it. 
It has been thought when one was found 
faithful over a few things that was a 
good reason for trusting him with more 
things. Can you do better than be in- 
structed by such an example ? Espe- 
cially since you must employ either the 
party Avhich you say has fultilled every 
trust, or employ that only other party 
which has betrayed every trust. 

The occasion for political effort "lias 
not passed. American progress is not 
ended. Other labors lie before you, 
lighter perhaps, but not light. 

First. You have to see that what is 
done shall not be undone. Republican- 
ism offers you the best security against 
retrogression. 

Second. You have to see that the 
work of reform goes forward. Three 
great labors demand your pi-esent con- 
sideration. 

The fourteenth amendment to the 
Constitution is not yet enforced by "ap- 
])ropriate legislation." Millions of 
American citizens are denied even the 
common law rights of locomotion be- 
cause they ai-e black. If such wrongs are 
to be redressed, the Republican party 
alone can do it. 



JlODRESS op THB union RBPUBLICAN CONaRESSIONAL COMMITTKB. 13 



THB CURRENCY. 

The currency is in an abnormal condi- 
tion, and must lie reforined. It is un- 
doubtedly true that the Eepublican party 
is not agreed how to effect that reform. 
Neither is the Democratic party. Neither 
party, as such, yet sees clearly the right 
way. But there are reasons for be- 
lieving thattlie Republican party rather 
than its rival can best treat this great 
question of the hnances : 

1. As the former has, hitherto, found 
the true way through graver difficulties, 
so we believe it is more apt to find the 
true way through this. 

2. You already have abundant assur- 
ance that when Republicans discover 
the true way they will pursue it. That 
assurance has not as yet been given by 
the other party. 

3. The Republican party in the future, 
as in the past, will see to it that the na- 
tional credit suffers no detriment and 
that the national honor is preserved. 

INTERNAL COMMERCE. 

Our internal commerce demands addi- 
tional and less expensive facilities. The 
volume of that commerce has grown in 
these lusty times to enormous propor- 
tions. 

Great as has been the increase of 
transportation facilities since the ad- 
vent of the Republican party, they have 
not kept pace with the demand for them. 
'Not only do immense bulks seek move- 
ment, but they require to be moved over 
vast distances. The surplus products of 
those almost unlimited basins — that be- 
tween the Alleghany and Rocky Moun- 
tains and that between the latter range 
and the Sierra l!^evadas — require to be 
dipped out into the ocean on either side. 
Prod action is not only so vast in amount, 
but it is so unequally distributed I 

Of the spring wheat grown in the 
United States, Wisconsin and Iowa raise 
nearly one-half. Of the winter wheat, 
Indiana awd Ohio produce nearly one- 
third. Of the corn raised, Illinois alone 
grows one-sixth. Of the tobacco, Ken- 
tucky raises nearly one-half. Nine 
States raise nearly all the cotton con- 
sumed in this country, and much of that 
consumed in Europe. 

The cotton fabrics manufactured in 
the United States in 1870 were valued at 
one hundred and fifty-seven millions. 
Of those fifty-nine millions were manu- 
factured in Massachusetts. Of course 
the distribution of these and the great 
variety of other commodities necessi- 
tates a vast amount of transportatios. 
Eleven States occupying the Mississippi 



valley send to market annually a surplus 
of its cereal products equal to 800,000,000 
bushels. 

To cheapen the carriage of .that single 
commodity by the amount of only ten 
cents per bushel is a saving of thirty 
millions to the people. 

Various expedients have been sug- 
gested for lessening the cost of trans- 
portation. In some of the States it has 
been proposed to place railway fares and 
freights under the control of the State. 
The objections to that expedient are so 
serious that it should not be embraced, 
if a better one can be found. This coun- 
try is so new, so raw, and so undevel- 
oped, the demands for ^capital are so 
many and so urgent, that any policy 
which would tend to drive capital from 
us should be avoided if possible. The 
State is but the aggregate of the people 
in the State. 

The people are the purchasers of trans- 
portation. 

The railway companies have trans- 
portation to sell. 

The law also holds railroad companies 
to be common carriers, and so bound to 
carry for all when the price is paid. It 
is now a mooted question whether that 
price shall be named by the companies 
or by the people— the sellers or the pur- 
chasers of the article. Which of these 
two parties is legally authorized to fix 
that price is probably determined by the 
laws under which the several companies 
are organized; but which of them can in 
fact fix it is a different question. 

It is manifest that if the company be 
allowed to fix the price they may de- 
mand too much. Venders of all com- 
modities are very apt to want all they 
can get. On the contrary, if the people 
or their agents fix the price they may set 
It too low. Purchasers are very apt to 
want commodities as cheap as they can 
be had. It is not probable that either 
party to the transaction would alwiiys 
hit upon the exact equivalent. The con- 
sequences of a mistake would probably 
be found most injurious, if made by the 
people. If the company makes the mis- 
take, and charges too much, no one is 
obliged to employ it. The producer does 
liis.owu carrying before the railway is 
built. He lias the perfect right to do so 
after it is built. So, every company is 
compelled by the laws of trade, even if 
municipal law is silent, to carry products 
cheaper than the producer can c.arry 
them, or he will not have them to carry. 
The company must also carry tliem at a 
profit to the producer, else the product 
will cease. The farmers of Iowa will 



14 ADDRESS OF THE UNION REPUBLICAN CONaKESSIONAL COMMITTED. 



send no wheat to Chicago, unless the 
roads will transport it at prices which 
will yield a prolit to the producer. 

The carrier must earn money for the 
producer as well as for himself, else he 
will soon have nothing to carry. It is 
as absurd for tiie railways to demand 
more for transportation than the pro- 
ducer can afford to pay as it was for the 
man in the fable to endeavor to get two 
golden eggs each day from his hen — the 
attempt to do so was death to the hen. 

Under favorable conditions, indeed, 
the carrier may demand and receive 
more than a fair share of the prolits of 
production. U'here such is the case, 
wlien the State linds the producer makes 
but ten per cent., while the cauier 
makes fifteen or twenty per cent., it is 
very easy and perfectly legitimate for it 
to say to the company : "■ The work you 
do can be done for less money ; we will 
pay you for your road what it will cost 
to build such another, or you may keep 
your road and we will build anotlier." 
So the people are not helpless against 
exorbitant charges. 

On the contrary, if the people set the 
price, and set it too low, thocousequences 
may be graver. The company has no op- 
tion. It must accept the price named 
or not run. If the rates named will af- 
ford a slight return on the capital, ex- 
isting companies may continue to run, 
but no more capital will encounter like 
risks. If the rates will yield no return, 
the road can not be run. Company and 
community, in that case, are alike ruined. 
Tliis expedient seems to be too hazardous 
to adojit, if a better can be found. 

Another expedient is to build a double 
track railway between the ISIississippi 
and the Atlantic o\^er which any party 
may run trains, and all trains to run witli 
the sauie rate of speed. This is worthy 
of careful consideration. 

A third expedient, and the most im- 
portant of all, is that proposed by tiie 
Se^ate Committee on "Transportation 
Routes to the Seaboard." That proposes 
to open or enlarge several different 
water channels between the Mississippi 
and the Atlantic. We invite your ear- 
nest and careful consideration of that 
proposal. It is asserted tliat by an ex- 
penditure of twenty millions per year 
for six or seven years new channels may 
be opened which will lessen the cost ut 
transportnig the grain product of the 
]\Tississiii|)i valley alone in the sum of 
$42,000,000 annually. The figures are 
startling, but are far from improbable. 
The expenditure proposed seems large. 
but compared with the resources of the 



people it is trifling. The wealth of tht 
nation is not less than thirty thousand 
millions, fie who has an estate of thiitj 
thousand dollars can not be distressed bj 
paying twenty dollars a year for six years. 
Besides, a nation which has spent three 
thousand millions of treasure aud an 
ocean of life for peace will not hesitate 
to spend a hundred and twenty millioE 
dollars for prosperity. 

The practicability of relief through 
governmental action is being ascertained 
by an able commission constituted by a 
recent act of Congress. 

J3ut whatever may or may not be ex- 
pedient to be done, this much seems cer- 
tain : If the National Governmi'iit is tc 
do anything whatever to cheapen trans- 
portation, only the Republican party can 
be relied upon to do it. The Democratic 
party has forsworn all such labors. 
Long ago they determined the Constitu- 
tion would not permit the Governmejit 
to remove an obstruction from a liarboi 
or a river. It is vain to suppose they 
will hud now authority to build canals 
or construct railways. But wo are not 
left in doubt as to their present disposi- 
tions. Two votes given during the past 
session, one in the Senate OJi Mr. 
Windom's amendment to the river 
and harbor bill, and one in the House on 
Mr. McCrary's railway bill, will i)rove, be- 
yond all doubt, that theDemocracts, like 
the Bourbons, have learned nothing good, 
even if they have forgot anything bad. 

Upon all these considerations, for all 
these reasons, we think you should send 
Republicans and not Democrats to the 
next Congress. If you cherish tiie deeds 
of the recent past, and w^ould not see 
them undone ; if you respect the pres- 
ent, and would not disgrace it ; or if you 
have hoi)e of the future, and would" re- 
alize that hope, we urge you to send lie- 
publicans, and nut Democrats to the 
next Congress. 

John Cobttrtvt, 
n. p. ch1fma.n, 
II. K. Havens, 

S. B. CONOVKIS, 

J. W. Flanahah, 
Jam 153 Wii.aoN, 
G. W. IIazlkton, 

>•. V, HlHdHTON, 
J. .11. l.OKF.AND, 
II. 15. "TUAIT, 
J. II. MncUELL, 

S. A. (Jiiiin, 

A. 1. IJonKMAN, 

W'm. M. stmwakt, 



JOHK A. LOOAN, 

'/j. Chandlkr, 
A. U. CKAiaicpf, 
ECOENH JIai.k, 
Wk'>. W. H UN due, 

IIkkkV Li. I'lBKOU, 

J. 51. Pkndlhi on, 

II. II. STAIlKWttATHKR, 
ThO.S. C. I'LATT, 

MARCU8 L. Ward, 

SI.MON CAMKI'.ON, 

AVm. J. Alijkut, 
John F. Lkwib, 
C. J->. Conn, 

UlCIIAUD II. WniTELKT, P. ^V. UlTCHOOCK,' 

Guo. E. Si'KNCiitt, Powell Ci. A VTON, 

Geo. C. MclvJiK, S. U. (Jhaffki:, 

J. U. We.st, li. C. iMcCoHMiox, 

Jl. S. IJUNUY, b. n. Kl.KiK3, 

J. M. Tuc»ii>Rnr.«, 

Union Repiihlicnn 

Congretisional CommiUe4, 



REDUCTION OP THE PUBLIC DEBT, ETC. 



15 



Amount of Eeduction of the Public 
Debt During the Fivo Years and 
Four Months from March 1, 1869, 
to July'l, 1874. 

Decrease Irom March 1, 1869, to July 1, 
1873 $377,644,046 44 

Decrease from July 1, 1873, 
to July 1, 1874 4,730,472 41 

Total 382,375,018 So 

From the above flgures it will be seen 
that notwithstanding the general pros- 
tration of business during the past fiscal 
year, and the fact tliat no new taxes 
have been assessed, the public debt has 
been reduced nearly five million dollars. 
Integrity of administration and the 
practice of strict econoray alone enabled 
the Government to make so favorable a 
showing. 

a m 

Public Credit— Borrc-wing Power of 
the Gorerament. 
The following is the realized rate of 
interest on Government stocks : 

Per cent. 

First four months of 18G1, just prior 
to the brerikiiig out of the rebel- 
lion, 5 ])or cent, stocks 8.14 

March, 18GS, comraeuc(!inenfe of 
third year of Johnson's Adminis- 
tration, 10-40S, 5 per cent 7.15 

Marcli, 18G9, 10-4U3, 6 per cent 6.43 

July 1, 1S73, 10-40d, 5 per cent 5.03 

Comparative Expenditures. 

Total expenditures for tlie year ended 
Juno3U, 1873 $292,177,188 25 

Deduct for expenses grow- 
ing out of the war, such 
as pensions, interest, 
claims, collection of in- 
ternal revenue, addition- 
al cost of army and 
navy payments, for il- 
legal captures, suppres- 
sion of Kukiux and 
Other disturbances, &c.. 214.642,051 03 

Total net currency ex- 
penditure for ordinary 
purposes, 1871 ^ 77,535,107 22 

Reduced to a gold basis, the averajje 
price of gold liaving been 112.3, gives 
expenditure on gold and i>eace ba- 
sis $69,042,838 13 

Expenditures under Bu- 
chanan, on a gold and 
pea-oa basis, ISao 61,402,403 64 



Per capita under Buchan- 
an, 1860 

Per capita under Grant, 
1871 



1 98 

1 77 



TaUe Showing Expenditures per Co-pHa 
from the Year 1800 to 1871, Inclusive. 



Tear. 



1800..., 
1810..., 
1S3).... 
1«0..., 
1840.... 
IH-'vl.... 
1800.... 

i8(;o.... 

1870.... 
1871.... 



Population. 



5,30.'5,W5 

7,-:.s:) 811 

n,r,:!8, i;u 

12, 8()i;,0J0 

17, cc.) 4:>;? 

i23, !".il.87(> 
31,4J3,;;-21 

3i,-ii;i,3a 

38, ,5.V), 9.-3 i 
38,011, 010 j 



Expendi- 
tures. 



110,813,071 01 
8 474,7.=>3 37 
18,-J8v5;i4 *) 
l.i.llJ, 108 20 
24, 31 4,. -1 18 19 
40,1148,383 12 
03, OJ,"). 788 98 

*G1, 402, 408 G4 

too, 042, 833 18 



2.038 
1.171 

1.187 
1.1 7G 
1. 424 

1.7G6 

2.004 

1.9.y2 

1.80 

1.77 



*l)i.'3biir.'<enieiits after rleducting Items not 
in reality for current c.xpemliiures. 

tExpemlUures after (leiluctiug disbnrse- 
moiit.s hicideiit to the war, and not properly 
cliaryeable to current corjl of Admiiiistralioii. 

Reduction of Taxation. 

The following exhibits the estimated 
reduction of annual internal taxation 
and customs duties under the laws men- 
tioned : 

Act of July 13, 1866 $65,000,000 00 

Act of iSlarch 2, 1867 40,000,000 00 

Act of February 3, 1868 .. 23,000,000 00 
Acts of March 1 and Jtily 

20, 1808 45,000,000 00 

Act of July 14, 1870 78,848,827 33 

Acts of May 1 and June 6, 

1872 51,823,761 38 

Net total reduction of an- 
nual taxation from July 
13, 1866, to June 6, 1872.. 303,072,583 71 
That this vast reduction of taxation 
should be accomplished within six years, 
immediately following the close of the 
war for the preservation of the Union, 
and that, during the same period, the 
national debt should also be reduced and 
refunded to tlie extent of saving, annu- 
ally, $20,000,000 of interest, certainly 
evinces botit good statesmanship and 
careful economy. 

mm I 

Collection of Internal Rovenuo, 
The number of jjcrsons employed in 
the collection of internal revenue in 
1866 was 8,599 ; number employed for the 
same purpose in 1873,3,533 — a reduction 
of 5,066. 



16 



TABLB OF COMPARATIVE APPROPRIATIONS, ETC. 



TABLE OF 



COMPAR, 
FISCAL 



VE APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE 
ilARS 1874 AND 1875. 



Title of appropriation bills. 



Navy 

Army 

Fortification 

Legi--latlve, executive, and jiidicial. 

Intlian 

Military Academy 

Deflciencies 

Post Office. 

Consular and diplomatic 

Peui^iou 

Sundrj' civil 

Kiver and liarbor 



Total. 



l''or fiscal year 
ending Jniio 
30, 1874. 



For fiscal year 
ending June 
30, 1875. 



$16, 

'^7, 

20, 
5, 

4, 
5, 
3, 
29, 
26. 
6, 



818, 
788, 
904, 
C13, 
656, 
339, 
083, 
497, 
405, 
980, 
895, 
218, 



946 20 
500 00 
1)00 00 
8S0 SO 
171 00 
835 00 
914 26 
842 00 
404 00 
000 00 
545 25 
000 00 



Increase. 



$1U,752 10 



101,240 00 
*2; 114, 045 00 



I>e«re«M. 



$5,457,81145 

4,007,508 81 

995, 000 OO 

8,139,753 06 



4, 482 (58 
8,894,504 34 



500, 000 00 

5, 290, 0.S,3 84 

884,900 00 



26,863,006 96 



Expenditures for 1874.— The final tabular statements of the total expeudittires for the fiscal 
year ending JutieSO, 1874, have not been completed, but approximate estimates show that 
there is no substantial difference between the items Of expenditures ol' the last two fiscal years, 
except as to interest and refund of duties. 

* The increase of two million is caused by the award of the mixed eommlsslon under the 
Treaty of Washington to British claimants for war damages. 



General Results Attained. 

1. The debt imposed by Democratic 
treason reduced $382,375,018 85 iu five 
years and four montlis. 

2. The financial power and credit of 
the Government advanced more than 
thirly-three per cent. 

3. The ptr capita expenditures for Gov- 
ernment service, upon a gold and peace 
basis, reduced below the cost of any 
Democratic administration within the 
last tliirty years. 

4. The expenditures for governmental 
purposes, except those chargeable to the 
rebellion and to permanent and produc- 
tive improvements, have been steadily 
reduced. 

5. Tne mechanical, professional, com- 
mercial, and agricultural interests of the 
people favorably progressing, and our 
citizens better clad, subsisted, and paid 
than those of any other country. 

d. Laws repealed which provided for 



the annual levy and collection of more 
than $300,000,000 of taxes; the products 
of industry and the necessaries of life 
relieved from further imposition. The 
remaining charges for suppressing the 
Democratic rebellion to be defrayed by 
imposts and taxes on luxuries mainly. 

7. Measures have been instituted by 
which the facilities for intcr-State com* 
merce are to be increased to the advant- 
age of the products of industry. 

8. The reduction of $382,000,000 in the 
principal of the public debt will save to 
the people annually $20,000,000 in the 
outlay for interest. 

9. The better protection of immigrants, 
in their transit across the ocean and af- 
ter their arrival in the country, has been 
provided for by appropriate legislation. 



NoTB.— This document can be obtained of 
the Union Republican Congressional Commit- 
tee at one loUar per hundred, postage paid by 
the Committee. 



LIBRfiRY OF CONGRESS 




013 789 519 5 4 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




013 789 519 5 • 






